


The Illusionist

by Selador



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Gold & Silver & Crystal | Pokemon Gold Silver Crystal Versions, Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Child Neglect, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Sexism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 07:32:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5906410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selador/pseuds/Selador
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A frustrated teenager. A pokémon with a fancy trick. Criminal organizations. What could go wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Goldenrod City

**Author's Note:**

> So I haven't been writing a lot lately because I have tendonitis in my hands and have to spend my writing time on school and work (it's getting better, but slowly). Buuuuut I have a bunch of this pokémon fanfic already written, and I've been thinking of posting it for a while now, so.... here you go! Regular updates for a while since I have a bunch written.

Goldenrod City, the gleaming jewel of travel and commerce of Johto. One could say, and the residents of Goldenrod certainly did, that it outshone even Kanto’s Celadon City and Saffron City. Unlike those landlocked cities, Goldenrod was a port. Furthermore, it was centrally located among four different regions.

Boats came from the west from both Sinnoh and Hoenn; trains came the east from Kanto. The treaty to unite with Kanto under the Indigo League—and thus open its door to foreigners via Kanto’s previous alliances—was incredible for Johto’s economy.

For its traditions and preservation of history, less so, but Goldenrod City was not concerned about such things to begin with. That was more the monks of Ecruteak’s concern. Or Violet City. Or Blackthorn.

Goldenrod might be a bit of a solitary yanma on that, actually.

The treaty was, as it stood, beneficial, and decades of skirmishes were not. The unification had passed, already, and the League power of Kanto was present in Johto.

Goldenrod City as a new central hub for travel also opened up new opportunity for pokémon trading and battling, both legal and... not. Particularly not.

Norman Maple, normal-type specialist and one of the few male trainers at the Goldenrod City Gym, informed his family at dinner one evening that he had acquired new pokémon from a Hoenn trainer. Slakoth, it was called, and while May was very unimpressed with the creature, Norman seemed very pleased indeed with him and the final evolved form it would eventually become, under Norman’s rigorous training.

May thought it looked lazy, sleeping all day like that, and though she had no comparison, it looked very young. May thought it would be cruel to subject it to Norman’s training regime, but couldn’t say anything.

At age twelve, May understood enough about Norman’s position at the gym. She understood that Norman had been in line for the position of gym leader, when Whitney “snatched” it from under him. From May’s interaction with Whitney the young woman was kind if loud. While May cared not one way or the other for Whitney’s femininity, Norman took it as a personal offense that he lost to such a _girl_. And he had lost, in multiple battles, to Whitney’s “girly” pokémon.

May enjoyed those battles. Whitney’s cute demeanor and vicious battling style should be emulated. Perhaps not by May, as she didn’t think she could quite cut the cuteness, but in general.

Also, it was satisfying to watch Norman’s “manly” pokémon fall to a clefable.

For most of May’s teenagerdom, watching Norman’s ursaring fall to Whitney’s blissey would remain the best sight she had ever seen.

While Norman most vocally disliked Whitney for her femininity, he also believed it was politics that secured the position for her, not her skill as a trainer. Norman believed, as others did, that Whitney assisted Kanto during the skirmishes, and that was why she was now being granted a gym leadership position.

People whispered that about all of the Johto gym leaders. Since Lance of Blackthorn defected to Kanto, no one with prestige was safe. Gym leaders in particular suffered, especially in their own cities, because they were so visible. And most of the gym leaders were so young, and new, and such good friends... May thought that the rumors were true, that they had aided Lance to bring unification.

The idea was as romantic to May as the prince her mother wished she daydreamed about; Lance, the prodigious dragon tamer of Blackthorn, for all appearances and purposes abandoning his home region, only to gain such acclaim in the enemy region so as to bring their unification. His allies in Johto well-positioned to help and step forward to support Lance’s rise in power.

May wished she were so good.

Or even as good as Whitney, who was so syrupy sweet, May thought it could be poisonous.

Norman, who had fought in many of the skirmishes against Kanto, fully believed the rumors, and perhaps that was really why he detested Whitney so much.

While Norman’s trade for foreign pokémon had been legal, to May’s knowledge, there were also exchanges that were not.

And there were people who did not receive what they expected. Abandoned pokémon, not native to the region, were becoming quickly a large concern for environmentalists. As environmental balance was essential for the continuation of wild pokémon habitat, the League swiftly increased security on foreigners entering Johto and Kanto.

As with most increases in security, it did not eliminate the problem. Only the stealthiest of black market pokémon traders got away with it.

May, one afternoon while taking the long way back home from school when she was thirteen years old, discovered such an abandoned pokémon, left to either die or disrupt the ecosystem. In the dumpster came pathetic little whines, and when May investigated, found a small, dark-furred, canine pokémon. Its eyes remained closed and its ears were bent; newly hatched. It curled against May when she picked it up delicately in her sweater, and stayed there quietly as she bought some baby pokémon-specific milk formula from the nearest store.

It would be better, of course, to know its species to select a formula that would suit its nutrition requirements, but the houndour formula should keep it alive until May could figure out what its species was.

It suckled at the bottle, slowly, and kept at it until the bottle was empty and May was past due for returning home.

As she walked, she examined the identifying markings of the pokémon. It had four red dots along its face like eyebrows, and its black fur was longer on top of its head, down to its mane. Once cleaned, May thought it would be very soft.

Using her key, she opened the door, greeted her mother was the hallway, and went straight up to her room. May was certain that if this pokémon were discovered, her parents would give it away, so that she could get a pre-approved pokémon more suitable to a young girl (like a cleffa or skitty, which... despite Whitney’s prowess, May would prefer something different).

Hiding would be difficult, as Caroline would often root through May’s room if she thought May was hiding something. Maybe under her bed?

Using an old shoebox, May fashioned a little bed for the pokémon.

It was suitable, but before the baby pokémon could settle into its new bed, it needed a bath.

“Mom!” May called out. “I slipped in some mud! I’m going to shower before dinner!”

“Okay, Sweetie!” Caroline replied.

May turned on the shower for believability, and washed the baby pokémon in the sink, which whined a bit but stopped when May shushed it.

Once clean and toweled off, May jumped into the still running shower, gave herself a cursory rinse, and got out. She brought the pokémon to the little bed, and went down to dinner.

...

Her father did not return before May’s bedtime that night, so she entered her parents’ bedroom without fuss and took an empty pokéball. Having never used one, she figured it involved throwing, capturing pokémon. But was that necessary against a baby? Wouldn’t that be cruel?

The baby pokémon was sleeping, and May frowned, considering the pokéball and the pokémon. Perhaps she could... not throw it?

The button was important, right? It looked important, and buttons are usually important. May pressed it. The pokéball swung open and in a beam of red light, the pokémon disappeared inside.

May blinked, but the pokéball did not move. Curious, she pressed the button again. The baby came out, still asleep.

Relief flooded May, followed by giddiness. Her mother wouldn’t be able to discover this!

...

Having her own pokémon, even if it was only a baby, was so exciting a secret that May’s mood improved considerably. To the point that even her father commented on it, next time he was around.

May continued to wait for discovery, as surely her parents would discover her secret eventually, but as the days turned into weeks, and her pokémon opened its eyes and played like a growlithe when she let it out of its pokéball, on her walks to and after school, and in her room at night when May believed that her pokémon could be quiet enough. Additionally, her pokémon seemed to prefer to be awake at night. Like a hoothoot. Or a houndour.

Speaking of, May still didn’t know what species her pokémon was. Or if it was a boy or girl.

And it didn’t even have a name yet.

The pokémon now had red on the longer fur on the top of its head, on each paw, in addition to the four eyebrows. May found no reference to anything of the kind in the library, and eventually, she needed to ask an expert.

On Wednesday, when she got off of school early, she raced over to the Radio Tower. The receptionist smiled at her and asked her where her parents were. Pointing to a group of people by the staircase, May said, “They’re over there! I had to use the bathroom and I went alone ‘cause I’m not a kid.” The receptionist beamed and waved her on. May wasted no time darting over to the group, and, shooting up the stairs when no one paid her any mind.

A flaw in May’s plan was that she wasn’t quite sure what floor to go on, but she knew what Professor Oak looked like from textbooks in school, so it shouldn’t be hard to find him, right?

Looking around, May grew concerned. The show always said they broadcasted live from Goldenrod City, but what if today Professor Oak had to go professor in a different city?

Feeling like she was about to cry, May retreated to a wall to compose herself. Unfortunately, children lurking by walls unattended did not go unnoticed, and soon there was a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you alright?” a kind-looking pink-haired woman asked. May shook her head, and said, “I need to find Professor Oak.”

The woman raised her eyebrows, in that expressions that adults make when they don’t understand why May said what she did. Her mom made that expression a lot. “What do you need to see Professor Oak for?” Caroline didn’t usually even ask, though.

“I have a pokémon that I found and I don’t know what it is, and he’s the expert on all pokémon, so I thought he would know...”

The woman’s face brightened. “Oh, that’s so cute! Sure, he’s right over here in the recording room.”

The woman introduced herself as Mary and offered her hand, and they walked down the hallways and entered a room, that had another room in it. There was a large portion of the wall that was made of glass, and through it, May was able to see Professor Oak.

“Can I see this pokémon of yours?” asked Mary. Obligingly, May released the pokémon from its ball. It yipped happily upon release, and May offered it a hand to pet it. “Oh, how cute! May I?”

May nodded, and the pokémon wagged its tail happily at the new person petting it.

“I think you were right coming to Professor Oak for this,” said Mary. “I’ve never seen a pokémon that looks like this. It’s probably a dark-type... where did you say you found it?”

May described where she had found her pokémon, when he had been a new hatchling.

“Ah,” Mary said. “Probably abandoned once it hatched, and the buyer realized that they hadn’t gotten the right pokémon egg. Or they might have had something against dark-type pokémon...”

“Oh,” said May. She looked at her pokémon, which had lied down and closed its eyes. It certainly didn’t look as evil as people always said dark-types were.

“Oh, hello! Who’s this?” said an accented jovial voice, and May looked up to Professor Oak. His accent was different from that of other Kantoans May had heard, but then, he was from a very small town, wasn’t he? She couldn’t recall the name of it. Even people from other cities in Johto had different accents than those in Goldenrod City, so it seemed like it should have been obvious that it would be the same in Kanto.

“I don’t know what my pokémon is,” May said.

Professor Oak looked at her pokémon and raised his eyebrows too, but more in the surprised way. “Well, I wouldn’t expect you to, as that pokémon is definitely not native to Johto. Or even Kanto. Let’s see here,” Professor Oak knelt down on the ground, and began examining her pokémon.

Mary stepped closer to Oak to whisper into his ear about something, and May suspected it was about her. She shrunk back.

“I believe, though I might be wrong, that this is a zorua we have on our hands, the pre-evolved form of zoroark. I’d seen a zoroark with the Unovian delegates, but not the pre-evolution form. How curious... and you found this pokémon abandoned?”

May nodded, and gave the exact same details she had given Mary.

“Ah, I see,” Professor Oak said. “Well, in that case, you seem to have done a fine job taking care of your zorua, and he seems—”

“It’s a boy?” May interrupted.

“Oh, yes, he is. As I was saying, he seems very happy and healthy in your care, so I see no reason to remove him. Have you given him a name?”

May shook her head. “No, because I didn’t know if he was a boy or girl. But now I can. Ink,” she said. “Your name is Ink.”

Ink wagged his tail and licked her fingertips. Professor Oak smiled. “And I don’t think I caught you name, son?”

May almost corrected him, told him that short hair did not make her a boy, but then realized that if the people here all thought that a _boy_ had brought in a—a zorua, then it couldn’t possibly get back to Norman that his daughter was training a pokémon that definitely wasn’t a cleffa or skitty. So she said, “Ruby,” because that was the name or maybe the name of Norman’s friend’s son that May had never met, so it worked. “Thanks Professor! I gotta go play with Inky!” Racing out, with Ink hot on her heels, May made her escape, because enthusiastic and thoughtless children were always more forgivable than quiet and evasive ones.


	2. Val the Valiant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Ruby" makes new friends of the human variety and one of the not-so-human sort.

May waited for Professor Oak to show up on her doorstep and reveal everything, for someone to take Ink away, or anything—but the weeks passed and May got away with it.

She became bolder, purposefully disguising herself as a boy and calling herself Ruby to sneak around the city. This was mostly so she and Ink could practice because at this point in time, the only thing better than watching Whitney beat Norman would be beating Norman herself.

Eventually she found some trainers her own age and level in the park, with their bug pokémon, newly caught at the National Park. She challenged one of them, but when she sent out Ink, a caterpie came out instead. May’s chest locked up, thinking that _someone had stolen Inky_ —

\--and the caterpie winked, just like Ink, and May _got it_. She smirked at the boy across from her, and his caterpie.

“Alright, Wriggle, slow ‘em down with a string shot!”

“Move,” May whispered, and Ink the Caterpie moved faster than a caterpie had any right to be. The boys across the field seemed to think so as well. “Leer and and scratch it.”

The caterpie was almost done, just one more scratch, which Ink did without being told. When he crawled over to May, she picked him up obligingly, and her touch destroyed the illusion.

“What is _that_?” The boy cried. “That’s not a caterpie!”

“Nope,” May said. “His name is Ink. And he can do illusions.” Not that May had known that before either, but now she did, and it was wonderful.

“Wow,” said one of the other boys. “Can I battle you too?”

“Up for another one, Inky?” May asked, and Ink wriggled out of her arms and onto the field.

This boy sent out a scyther, which was bigger than what Ink was used to, but Norman’s tauros was bigger, and much better trained.

It may be too much for Ink, however.

“Don’t stop moving and avoid the blades,” May commanded. There was no point in disguising as a scyther right now. Or a caterpie. “Scratch it when you get an opening.”

Ink did so, obediently, and though scyther was quick, Ink was a much smaller target to hit. And then—and then Ink fell and the floor and wailed and wailed and wailed and May’s heart plummeted—she didn’t even see the hit—

The scyther stopped, stared at the wailing zorua, then back at his trainer uncertainly, and Ink leaped from his spot with a dark energy by his paws and hit the scyther in the back of the head.

_That wasn’t scratch_ , May thought, as she cheered Ink. “Keep going! Don’t let it recover!”

Ink made a whole-hearted attempt, but scyther was far more trained than he. It got in a few hits, and Ink was down. May called off the fight and checked on him, but surprisingly, saw no scratches.

“Hey, we know how to be careful with those things,” said the boy with the scyther. “Nice battle! Once your... Ink? Gets up a few levels, we should have a rematch.”

“Sounds great! I’m Ruby,” said May, shaking the boy’s hand who introduced himself as Anthony.

May was enthusiastically invited to hang out and train with the boys, so she promised to do so the next day, when Ink was feeling up to training.

Despite everything, May began to have friends, who helped her identify Ink’s new moves—Fake Tears and Pursuit—and helped her train. With them, Ink became stronger.

With little convincing, she got her new friends to explore the city with her, and then the surrounding routes.

“If we keep heading this way,” said Anthony, “we’ll get to the National Park. There’s a lot of good bug and grass type pokémon there, if you’re interested.”

May mulled this over. “Like yours?”

“Well, Blades I got during a competition in one of the reserved areas, so you’d have to enter that and happen to find a scyther. I think they’re actually native to just Kanto? The competitions cost money, though, I had to save up for months.”

Disappointed, May shook her head. She didn’t have money for that. “What else is there?”

“Um... caterpies, weedles, their evolved forms, sunkern, and, uh... oddish, I think?”

May hummed, unenthused. “I guess we’ll go see what we find.”

“Getting something good against fighting and bug types should be first thing!” said the boy with a caterpie, Bill. “Since that’s what Ink’s weak against. So, something flying would be good!”

“What about this route?” May asked, gesturing the field of grass and trees alongside a river.

“Pidgeys, definitely, uh, more caterpies and stuff... might be some nidorans, which are pretty cool. And yanma can be found here! But they’re hard to find if there’s no swarm, which we haven’t gotten to yet.”

“A pidgey might be all right...” though May didn’t really want a normal-type pokémon. But she might as well look.

A nidoran _would_ be cool.

Pidgeys were cute, but May felt resistant to catching and training a normal type and to disturbing how peaceful the pokémon were in the wild. The boys, who were at first enthusiastic, began sighing so loud that May waved them off to go ahead, that she would look for pokémon herself.

The boys raced off, both yelling, “No, _I’ll_ catch a yanma first!” leaving May and Ink alone. Ink led her through, using trees and shadows as cover. Ink enjoyed leading May, even through the city, and May noted that the path Ink chose kept them in the shaded path and difficult to notice by passerby.

Eventually, their path led them to walk barefoot at the edge of the river, and while a water-type was definitely appealing to May, she had neither fishing rod nor pokémon who could get her to where she could actually see the pokémon. Instead, she took off her shoes, and dipped her feet into the cool water. Ink, by her, began to splash on the edge, getting closer and closer to splashing May.

As it happened, she didn’t need a water pokémon or a rod, as quite suddenly, she felt a stinging pain in her right ankle. She looked down to see a very small, very young, and very, very skinny totodile clinging to her ankle by its sharp teeth.

May bent down, pried open its mouth with her fingers, while saying, “I’m too big for you to eat,” and letting the totodile go. It immediately tried to go for Ink instead, but backed off when he growled at it. It stared at them though, mouth open. May stared at it curiously. She could see its ribs, and while it was smaller—younger—than totodiles she had seen before, it didn’t look right.

So, slowly, she reached into her backpack and pulled out a treat she had brought for Ink, and broke in half. One she gave to Ink, who munched it happily, and the other she gave to the totodile—or would have, if it hadn’t rushed for her hand so fast that she pulled back her hand for fear of her fingers.

“No,” she said firmly, grabbing it at the base of its head with her free hand. “No,” she repeated, as it watched her set the treat down. Once her hand was clear, she said, “Okay,” and released it. It went for the treat without hesitation.

Once it finished, it stared at her. She stared at it, and slowly reached into her backpack for another treat. It snapped its jaws, but it seemed more excited than threatening.

Also, it was too small to be threatening.

Slowly, May began to put the treat onto the ground. “No,” she said firmly, when the totodile took a step towards her. It stopped. Pleased, May smiled, and when the treat was on the ground and her fingers out of harm’s way, she said, “Okay.”

The treat was devoured similarly to the first.

May nodded to herself, wiped her hands on her pants, and stood. “I don’t have anymore,” since they weren’t actually that good for pokémon. It would be like given a human child ice cream, so while it was better than starving, it wasn’t very healthy.

Regardless, when May and Ink left (with Ink leading the way; he had shown little interest in the totodile), the totodile had scampered after them. Or, did for a while, before exhaustion got the best of it, and began to pant and fall behind. May, feeling bad, went back for it and carried it back with her.

That was what it was waiting for it seemed. It crawled up her arm and around her shoulder and settled down draped across the back of her neck.

“Suit yourself,” May said.

...

She hadn’t arranged to regroup with her friends, and they tended to lose track of time when it came to bugs anyway, so she headed on home. To her surprise, no one was there, until she remembered that Norman was supposed to be battling some challengers at the gym that evening.

“Shit,” she said, feeling the curse in her mouth. Her friends were right; it was satisfying to say.

She opened the door with her spare key. Ah—she wasn’t actually to have the house for herself, it seemed, judging by the familiar growl as she entered.

Marshall the raticate had been Norman’s first pokémon, and had seen many battles with him. The thing was scarred all along both sides, had one eye permanently appear larger than the other, and did not like May at all. He took after Norman in that way, May thought sometimes when she felt especially bitter.

Often, Marshall would terrorize her, and May had no recourse as Marshall was deemed smart enough to “guard” both the house and her at many points in May’s life, and it only became more frequent as she got old enough to not require a babysitter.

Now that May had a pokémon, even a young, untrained one, she had thought about setting Ink on Marshall and letting the old rat have it. Marshall was so old (raticates really weren’t supposed to survive longer than a few years in the wild), she didn’t think he could put up much of a fight, and she wouldn’t let Ink _really_ hurt him. Just enough to get him to leave her alone.

Evidently, she didn’t need to decide. The totodile, happily hanging around her neck, _leaped_ to Marshall and closed its mouth soundly over the raticate’s nose. The instant it took for the totodile to clear the air would be forever imprinted on May’s memory.

Marshall squealed and began running around the room, thrashing every which way to dislodge the totodile, who seemed to only hold on that much more. When the raticate got to the point where it was trying to bite what it could reach of the totodile, May waved to Ink, who gleefully body slammed the raticate, allowing the totodile to jump off and scramble back to May.

May determined that Marshall’s bloody nose couldn’t be determined to be specifically another pokémon—the thrashing had made a mess of it, so it could have been a bad scrape from just falling over. Marshall was _really old_ for a raticate.

Pleased, May bounded back up to her room, Ink at her heels and the totodile in her grasp.

“You’re an idiot,” May giggled to the totodile, who closed its eyes while she scritched the top of its head. “But a brave and fierce idiot. Like—like a valiant prince in the stories. Val, for valiant. Your name is Val,” she said with all the grandiosity a thirteen-year-old girl can manage.

Val paid her no mind, having already fallen asleep.

...

Norman and Caroline worried that Marshall was beginning to run into things, but after getting him patched up and seeing no more evidence of it, they forgot the incident. Well, Norman watched his first partner with more concern than he had ever paid May, but he was relieved when he saw no more evidence that anything was wrong.

In the meantime, May introduced her new friend to Bill and Anthony.

“Ooh, a water-type, nice. That won’t take care of Ink’s disadvantages, but at least he won’t share the same ones...”

“Val’s a boy? How can you tell?”

Bill pointed. “He’s got that little slit that totodiles have for their penises.”

“Oh,” May said, looking. _Good to know._

“You’ll have to wait ‘till he gets bigger and healthier to really start training. We can do some target practice though,” Anthony said, waving to where Blades was lounging in the shade. Blades obediently came on over and stood menacingly in front of Val. “Blades, don’t counterattack. Just let Val here practice.”

Before he finished though, Val jumped, his little mouth closing on the tough Blades’ thin, upper arm. However, Blades’ entire body was covered in an exoskeleton, so Blades did nothing more than flinch.

“Uh... okay, Val, you can let go.” It took a few tries and some convincing to get Val to let go, and when he did, Blades snapped at him in annoyance. Val snapped back and flailed in May’s arms, and she stubbornly tightened her hold on him.

“No,” she said. Val stopped.

“Huh,” Bill said. “That’s cool.”


	3. Stealing from Team Rocket

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May steals from Team Rocket.

Val got a bit better at listening at commands other than ‘no,’ and got bigger too. He wasn’t a match yet for Blades, but neither was Ink and he’d been training for a while more.

Bill’s caterpie evolved into a metapod and then a butterfree after some intense training sessions with Anthony and Blades. May had searched for zoruas and zoroarks in the library, but as they were pokémon native to Unova, the libraries didn’t have that information.

So, they just kept training.

Eventually, May mentioned that her name wasn’t Ruby to Bill and Anthony, who were curious enough to ask but knew her well enough to keep calling her Ruby and treating her like a boy. She enjoyed being Ruby more than May. Ruby was a trainer of a zorua and totodile, free to run around the nearby routes and the National Park, staging mock battles to train. Ruby didn’t have a distant father or a controlling mother. May was a girl who wasn’t allowed a pokémon of her own, and when her parents deemed to get her one, it would be probably only be one that her parents deemed “appropriate” for a girl like her.

... though, if she did get a cleffa or skitty, she would train it to be the most kickass cleffa or skitty _ever_ and beat all of the men who think they’re better than her because she was born a girl.

But she loved her Ink and Val, and wouldn’t trade them for the strongest and cutest of cleffas.

Ink grew bigger and stronger, and turned out to know the move Extrasensory—not very effective against bug-types like Blades, who learned Fury Cutter and got even better at taking Inky down, but it would work well against any fighting-types that they would encounter, and pure dark-types only had those two weaknesses.

When May was sixteen, Team Rocket began showing up in town. They were barely noticeable at first; they were good at operating in the shadows.

Unfortunately, for both parties, May enjoyed going on walks in the shadows with Inky.

Fortunately, Bill and Anthony happened to be with her at the time. They had been talking about something—May couldn’t remember about what, afterwards—when a couple of guys slid in front of them, and said, “Hey, kids. That’s a nice pokémon you got—what is it?”

Ink growled, and May flinched backwards. Bill and Anthony jumped, startled. May said, “None of your business. Go away, or I’ll order him to attack you.”

The men laughed. “That’s so cute! Thinking that little baby of a pokémon is any threat to us. But we haven’t seen it before, so it must be rare. We’ll be taking it from you, _now_.” They released their pokémon, a golbat and something that May didn’t recognize. It stood on two legs, had two long, curved claws, one stubby dark ear and one long, pink, feather ear. Its wicked grin reminded May of Ink, and she thought, _Must be a dark-type_.

Clearly, Anthony thought more or less the same thing because Blades was out and charging the unknown pokémon. May knew that golbat was a poison/flying-type, so Ink’s Extrasensory move would be great to take it down.

The golbat was fast, and it opened its mouth and dove toward Ink with its glistening fangs—but Ink was faster. The golbat was surrounded by the light of Ink’s power and through towards the wall of the nearest building, at which it hit with a satisfying crunch.

Blades met blade and claw with the mystery pokémon; it was better trained than the golbat, but against Ink and Blades, it didn’t stand a chance.

The men, sputtering in indignation, recalled their pokémon and ran. Blades started to chase after them, but Anthony called him back.

“Are you okay, Ink?” May asked her own pokémon, who looked very smug indeed. Bill was hanging back with his butterfree on hand, looking around nervously. “Hey, guys? Not to rush ya, but, can we, I dunno, go?”

Good point; they might come back with friends. The three of them slipped away, following Ink’s lead, through alleyways and dark paths through the city that Ink navigated as if he was born to it.

_Well_ , May corrected, _he was_.

Ink led them to Bill’s house, whose grandmother greeted them with dinner. Though May was going to miss her own curfew, she felt it better to stay and avoid those shadowy men, then leave just to appease her parents.

However, Bill’s grandmother was genuinely interested in the life of her grandson, and her grandson’s friends, so she left even later than she would have liked. May admired how unconcerned Ink was; he didn’t have to face her parents. In fact, he seemed more at ease in the dark than he had ever been in the sunlight. _Maybe I should spend more time out at night?_ pondered May. She had been told so often by teachers and her parents that she should never wander around alone in the city by herself.

_I’m not by myself. I’ve got Ink and Val._

The house was dark. Ink and May crept up to it and lightly unlocked the door. They stepped in, edging their way through the darkness, only to find—nothing. No note, no waiting parents... confused, May went upstairs and peeked inside her parents bedroom.

They were there, but asleep. Neither waiting nor looking for her.

One time when they were training in the park, a girl with a machop showed up and invited herself to train with them. She challenged May and Ink to a battle, and when May won a resounding victory using Ink’s Extrasensory attack, the girl had stepped up to May and punched her in the stomach.

This was like that, but worse. She hadn’t wanted to cry after being punched.

Tears blurring her vision, May stumbled out of the house, Ink following on her heels. Eventually, Ink took the lead, and off they disappeared into the dark maze of Goldenrod City.

...

May considered returning to Bill’s, but Bill’s grandmother would ask questions, and May thought that might very well be the second worst thing in the world, for other people to _know_. Instead, they walked, and became lost.

At least, May became lost. Ink seemed to know exactly where they were going. Ink always knew where they were going, and always got her back home faithfully. _People are wrong about dark types_ , May thought. She couldn’t imagine a growlithe more loyal or reliable than her zorua.

When they were passing by one of the entrances to the underground—which was thriving with the night life crowd—she saw a shadow move. _Is that what we look like right now?_ May thought for one second before she realized what that meant. She stopped, and Ink stopped.

They watched. She watched the shadows and could make out a tall woman and—a houndoom. A strong-looking one too. As May watched, she began to see more and more; the red of the woman’s hair, the svelte dress suit that she were, and could hear the click clacking of her heels. Why hadn’t she heard that before? They were so loud.

Goldenrod City’s Underground, which hosted an assortment of local and tourist favorites, such as the market and other, less, savory transactions. It was booming with business at night, with tourists and bright shops and attractions and… those that weren’t as much.

And this woman was sneaking in. Why would she bother? There wasn’t any need to sneak into the Underground. It was public.

Transfixed—by her confidence, by the dark pokémon like hers, by the question, and maybe by the smell of trouble—May followed. The clacking of her heels led May even when the noise of the Underground rose. When the noise vanished behind a door down a inconspicuous hallway, away from the bustle of tourists and bars, even away from the red light district and where you can find drug dealers, May allowed herself to feel scared, and consider abandoning this pursuit. Then her skin prickled, like it did when Ink used his psychic abilities, and she looked down.

Ink, radiating smugness, softly padded over to the door, pressed against it. He had kept it open when the woman went through. May smiled, a bit, despite her heart hammering in her chest.

May thought of why she was out that night to begin with, and her chest tightened and she gritted her teeth.

Ink was waiting for her and she stepped through the door with the resolve that she would make herself someone worth watching.

...

There was nothing to see, at first, and May felt simultaneous relief and disappointment. Ink sniffed the ground and confidently pushed on, and May attempted to mimic his surety.

They came across another door. Unlike the one that Ink had kept propped open for them, this one had a solid, expensive, shiny, and new-looking lock. With some terror and growing glee, May picked the lock.

She and Ink slipped in to find a headquarters. With the same symbol on it as those men who attacked them, earlier, the red _R_ of Team Rocket. Feeling out of her depth, May clung to the shadows with Ink, who must have been using his Illusion ability to hide them, as there were several occasions where uniformed individuals looked right at her and noticed nothing.

(It did not take very long or very far to not be able to hear any sound from the Underground. No one would be able to come and help her, at this point. Her fear was a tremor in her hands.

But she kept going.)

The hallway was lit poorly, which worked in her favor. It seemed to be just a storage area that had been converted to a secret base or evil organization hideout, whatever. The lights burned brightly down a single line on the ceiling, leaving lots of shadows to move in, helped by the sheer number of carts lying around.

Although May wanted—wanted something out of this, she wasn’t quite sure what, and she was beginning to lose her nerve. She didn’t know how far her luck would go.

She needed _something_.

She followed one particularly important looking man, who had turquoise hair and an air about him that said that yes, he would kick you while you were down, thanks for asking. When he went through a door with a fingerprint scanner, May and Ink slipped in before the door closed.

In this room was the tech. Computers, monitors, displays, enough lights that May briefly panicked, then remembered Ink’s illusions. She took a deep but quiet breath, and observed. There was a fair amount of tense activity in the room, focusing around one of the monitors. Above the monitor was a glass case that held a black and blue pokémon egg. There were other eggs, some that May could even recognize—houndour, pikachu, squirtle—but she didn’t know this one, and everyone seemed to be really interested in it.

_That’s it_ , May realized. _That’s what I need._

It took patience. May and Ink stood in an illusion for an indeterminate amount of time, waiting for the people to thin out. And they did, quite possibly as the sun began to rise. May didn’t know if the day shift would soon come, but she didn’t give them that chance. Tapping Ink on the back and hoping he’d understand to cover her, May went to one of the edge tanks that had a different black and blue egg and nabbed it out. (The cases were not locked. For ease of monitoring?) Then she walked to the main case—it was _weird_ for people to literally look right at her and not see her—and switched them, praying that Ink would cover the entire case.

While she did so and immediately after, no one reacted to her or anything she did.

Victorious, Ink and May left the Underground to the breaking dawn.

…

Her hands shook on the way home. But—but this time it was good.

...

Her dad had had a battle that night. Her parents had arrived home late, and assumed she was in bed. That’s why they hadn’t waited for her. That hadn’t even realized she had gone, and everything was as normal as always in the Maple household.

In the morning, during breakfast, her mother happily gave her a play by play of everything, though May was pretty sure that Norman had not been nearly as impressive as Caroline made him out to be.

...

May had no idea what kind of pokémon was inside, so she followed general care instructions for an egg, which was keep it safe and warm. The bed that was Ink’s under her bed during those first few nights was appropriated, and while she searched in many texts and online databases, she found nothing that matched the egg. It didn’t surprise her though; she knew it must be a rare pokémon.

That she stole.

She stole a pokémon.

That was a serious crime. One of the most serious, in fact.

The gravity of what she had done did not quite strike her until she was lounging on Bill’s couch with the boy himself and Anthony, and a news story started up.

“Meanwhile, there have been reports that Team Rocket by the Whirlpool Islands, attacking trainers while en route to Olivine City and Cianwood City. Trainers have been left to swim to the nearest piece of land, thankfully plentiful by the Islands themselves, but there have been three missing persons reports that have been older than a month, and seven rescued trainers. Trainers have been warned that, if attempting to surf by pokémon from one city to the other, to go with a group rather than on their own. Takeshi, a police officer of Olivine City who is investigating claims of Team Rocket activity, is here to explain the situation. What do you make of all of this?”

It switched to a grim-faced man in a police uniform. “Well, Marcia, clearly Team Rocket is getting a firm grip in Johto because of the treaty between Kanto and Johto. Team Rocket used to be Kanto’s problem, but since we started letting in all of those Kantoans, Team Rocket has been attacking out people and stealing our pokémon.”

It went on—Team Rocket was most active in, of course, Goldenrod City, and it was suspected they had at least one headquarters here. Most of their activity was supposed to be in Kanto, so the Goldenrod Police Department _really_ wanted to track them down before they could root themselves in like a parasite.

Which brought the question as to why they were by the Whirlpool Islands. The police officers and crime specialists thought that they wouldn’t stop at stealing everything a lone trainer had, but soon start attacking the ships coming in from the other regions. That they meant to set up a base on the Whirlpool Islands—which were difficult to reach, so if they could do it, Johto would be hard-pressed to get to them then—and attack at their leisure.

All in all, it was a terrifying prospect. And May had just walked into their headquarters and stolen a pokémon egg.

Bill’s grandmother was out at the store. May muted the news. “Guys,” she said, mouth dry. “I stole a pokémon from Team Rocket.”

“What?!” Bill yelped, but Anthony snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“No, really.” May stated calmly, and recounted the events of that night. By the end, Bill was staring at her with his wide, brown eyes, and Anthony began to laugh.

“I can’t believe it,” Anthony chuckled, and when May was about to protest, he brought up a peacekeeping hand. “No, I believe you, it’s just that, that was so dumb it became genius. You stole from Team Rocket. They’re supposed to steal from everyone else, and you just—did it, right under their noses, even.”

May flushed, a bit pleased. “Well, it was Ink, really. Couldn’t have done it without him.”

“No kidding,” Bill said. “You’re sure they won’t be able to track you down?”

May shrugged. They had houndooms, but with the amount of people crammed in there, and the rank smells that normally populate the Underground, she didn’t think it was much of a concern. “Don’t think so.”

“You don’t think so,” Bill repeated. He quieted when they heard a key turn into the door, and Bill’s grandmother appeared with groceries. “I’m back, kids! Help me bring the bags in?”

“Yeah, Grandma!” called out Bill, and that ended that conversation.


	4. Life as a Team Rocket Grunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May joins Team Rocket.

It came up again when May snuck the egg into her backpack, and brought it to their after school meet-up at the park. Ink and Blades greeted each other and began to beat each other up, while May, Bill, and Anthony examined the egg. Val, uninterested in Ink’s fight and the egg, took his place hang around May’s neck. Soon, he would be too big to settle there, but he was still a baby recovering from lack of food.

“That decides it,” Anthony announced. “I have no idea what it is. Can’t you wait ‘till it hatches?”

“It was the centerpiece for Team Rocket,” May said, miffed. “It must be something rare and powerful.”

“You’re impatient,” Bill summed up.

“I waited hours to nab this thing,” May snapped in response. To the side, Ink let out a particularly vicious howl. May ran her fingers over the egg’s surface; it was rougher than any she’d felt before, at the pokémon daycare center a little south of Goldenrod. The elderly couple that ran it had had no questions about the three youngsters who barged in, asking questions about everything, and had shown them the basic care techniques for eggs and newly hatched pokémon.

Might they know what this was? She asked it out loud. Anthony pointed out, “And if they talk about it? If Team Rocket hears that some punk has a weird egg that looks just like the one they lost...”

Too true. May stared at the egg with dismay. She would have to wait.

Anthony jerked up to his feet without warning, and a bright glow came from the corner of May’s peripheral vision. She saw Ink glowing and growing, and when the light vanished, Ink was a good three feet taller. The red fur at the top of his head had spread down in a stripe to his tall and was slightly longer than the rest, and he now had wicked, sharp-looking red claws.

Ink howled, longer and louder than before, and charged Blades, who threw himself into the fight with a new eagerness.

“Huh,” May said. Even Val was trying to get a closer look, and May had to stop him from falling. “Ink evolved.”

“That is so cool,” Anthony said. Bill nodded enthusiastically.

...

May was successful once and she couldn’t forget the thrill of it. She went back. Ink still led her through the city, padding along on all fours. Ink could now walk on just his hind legs but he seemed to prefer being on all fours, and reared back to his hind legs only for battles.

The red markings on his face now outlined only his eyes and the corners of his mouth, giving him a permanently grinning appearance. It was well-suited, honestly.

Ink now had a new undercurrent of power that he hadn’t before. She could feel it now, when he used his illusions, and could feel it settle over her on their nightly walks and their riskier investigations. (They broke into the Goldenrod Department Store, just to see if they could. They didn’t take anything, they just wanted to know if they could.

They could.)

She didn’t try to break into the Underground again—it would be riskier if they knew they had had a break in before, and besides which, she didn’t remember anything else that was noteworthy there, anyway. There had to be another Team Rocket secret hideout waiting to be found. That couldn’t be their only base, there were only pokémon eggs there. Instead, she waited by the entrance of the Underground in the middle of the night for a Team Rocket member to depart, and she followed them.

The first two went to apartments in the city. They were really just apartments, May double-checked. She noted the addresses just in case, and returned to waiting. It was attempt number three that got her anywhere remotely resembling progress. The third went to the casino.

The casino was brightly lit and bustling; the Team Rocket member could be there just to gamble. But it was her first lead.

May briefly rested her hand on Ink’s back, and he leaned in against her leg. She felt a peculiar sensation that she was beginning to think was Ink’s presence on her own mind. With psychic-types, it was expected, and since her zoroark had psychic capabilities, it would make sense. In hindsight, it would explain why Ink had known exactly what illusions to hide her under when she stole the mystery egg. Huh. She really ought to get him some of the treats he really liked...

ID was required to get into the casino, and you had to be of age too, but May and Ink just strolled in under an illusion. The casino itself was a mixture of bright, cheery lights and noise, and depressing, still figures situated at the slot machines.

 _This is supposed to be fun?_ May thought, a tinge disappointed. Norman always hated that there was a casino in Goldenrod, and she never liked to agree with him.

She loitered near the crowd around a card table, to make it easier for Ink to hide them in an illusion. She could still see the Team Rocket member, now disguised, striding confidently to a door hidden in a corner.

She followed, and she was at the door, examining it, and didn’t even noticed that Ink had fallen back until, “Well, aren’t you a clever one?”

May startled, and turned around to see the red-haired woman from before, now in a shiny, blue, cocktail dress. Her houndoom was poised and dignified by her side, its back straight and wearing an elegant collar. May didn’t understand how this woman noticed them, or why Ink would have let her—and instead of Ink, there was a grungy-looking, little houndour. It clicked, and May would have bet that she looked little like herself.

“I, I don’t know what you mean,” May stuttered, not really acting. Her heart was thudding in her chest.

“Oh, we both know that’s not true! You were about to examine how to get to the other side of that door. Go ahead,” the woman nodded, and May stared at her with disbelief. When the woman gave no indication that she planned on leaving or exposing May, she turned her back to the woman with great effort.

It was not a lock this time, but a card key. There was nothing else. She could force the door, but it would be easier to just steal a card key or wait until someone came and slip in with them. Although, she couldn’t do that with this woman here, glancing uneasily at the woman.

“Well?” the woman demanded.

Well what? “I need a card key to get in,” May stated, _and I need to steal it_.

“And?” said the woman. May was certain she didn’t say that last part aloud, but now she added it. The woman nodded, pleased. “That’s correct. Now, from whom can you steal a card key from?”

Assuming that the correct answer was not “you,” May scanned the crowd. Surprisingly she quickly spots the second Team Rocket member she followed that night who only went home. _Guess that was his first stop for the night_ , May thought. He was dressed in a suit that was a tad too big for him, but the effect was enough. He may be Team Rocket, but he couldn’t have been high on the ladder. _Would he even have a card key_?

However, the woman noticed at whom she was staring. “Very good,” she said, sounding surprised but pleased. “How did you know?”

 _I followed him home from your other secret base, from which I stole some mysterious and important egg_. May said, “I saw him change outside from his uniform,” which was true.

The woman laughed. “Very good! Now how are you going to steal his card?”

She couldn’t use illusions, not with this woman watching. May would just have to nab it without getting caught. Without glancing to the woman, May and Ink the houndour snuck into the crowd and weaseled their way through to their target. He had no bag, so it had to be in one of his pockets. But which one?

Lingering close, she determined that her target had his pokégear in his right pocket and his wallet in his left. Therefore, she should go for the left. He was at the card table, which was crowded; he was always pressed on both sides by people. It took some elbowing and pushing, but May got behind him, and she slipped her hand down, plucked it out in a smooth motion, and pocketed it.

She waited a second, and nothing happened. May pressed away, but to the left, like she was still watching the card game—gambling—whatever. Then she broke apart and relocated the woman, who had moved to the bar, waiting with two drinks.

“Very good,” she said. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

 _Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie_. “Carrie,” she answered. Her mother’s nickname with her friends.

“And your puppy?”

 _Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie_. “Fang,” she answered smoothly.

The woman laughed. “Really?”

May might have panicked, quietly, and said something incomprehensible. Fortunately, the woman thought she was explaining the houndour’s real name, and only leaned in a bit. May said a bit more clearly but aiming for embarrassed, “His name _was_ Fluffy, but I’ve changed it to Fang.” _Distract her, give her something believable, do not be found out_. _Ink, don’t fail me now!_

“Hard times?” the woman asked, surprisingly sympathetic. Sounded genuine, too. It occurred to May to wonder what she was getting out of this. “They happen to all of us, sweetheart, but they hit some harder than most. Where are your parents?”

“Not around,” which rang truer than May wanted it to.

The woman tsked. “You poor thing. Do you have any pokémon aside from Fang, here?”

Val was asleep in her room, curled around the egg, thank Lugia’s silver wings. “No.”

“But what a steadfast companion,” the woman murmured, reaching over to scratch Ink behind the ear. May flinched, but if there was a noticeable difference between what Ink feels like and what the woman expected him to, she didn’t let on. “I’ve always loved fire-types the best, but my houndoom has always been there for me in the dark. He was my very first pokémon, like yourself.” May hadn’t said that, but suddenly she understood what was happening and what Ink had done, disguising himself as a houndour. He was definitely going to get his favorite treats after this.

“And like yourself, I was on the streets, stealing to survive,” the woman continued. “When Giovanni himself found me and gave me a place where I belonged.”

_Who’s Giovanni?_

“Tell me, Carrie, what do you know of Team Rocket?”

May shrugged. “They distract the cops from me.”

“That’s a good attitude,” the woman said. “Do I look successful to you?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like to be as successful as I?”

 _No. I want to be even more so._ “Yes.”

The woman smiled. “Then let me introduce myself. I am Ariana, Second-in-Command of Team Rocket.”

 _Shit_.

...

May became a Team Rocket grunt, though one who work personally for Ariana herself. Team Rocket was not a group in which attention was usually a good thing; it meant her actions were scrutinized more than they would have been normally. May trusted Ink implicitly, but she didn’t know his upper limit. What if the illusion dropped while they were in base? And if someone touched either Ink and paid attention, they would immediately know something was wrong. May, fortunately, only had to be worried if someone touched her face in terms of maintaining the illusion. She would still have trouble if someone touched her elsewhere.

Fortunately, Team Rocket was not a touchy-feely group, and even they respected the fact that touching someone else’s pokémon is reason enough to lose a limb or worse.

The jobs were familiar to May, if only for all of the news stories she had heard about Team Rocket’s crimes. They weren’t even all that difficult. Either alone or in a group, she would be sent to steal a particular pokémon. The targets were usually trainers with more money than skill. They could acquire the rare, powerful pokémon, but had no idea how to train them to protect either themselves or their pokémon.

May would just pickpocket them. No fuss, no commotion.

There was once when she did so, that it was so easy that she accidentally took two pokéballs instead of one. It was a wealthy, secretive Pokémon Collector who was the target, so her mission parameters were actually in essence, “Take whatever you can,” so taking two was actually good.

Still. She wondered what she got. She had time before she had to report back. With Ink ready by her side, she opened one of the pokéballs.

There was an almighty roar, and May startled backwards. Ink leapt forward to remain between her and the kangaskhan which was—which was a weird color. It was a shiny.

Rare pokémon collector indeed. Now that she thought about it, that had probably been mentioned in the dossier she had skimmed and then ignored as none of her red flags were present. The kangaskhan appeared wild and gearing up to attack, so May recalled it before it could. Safely secured, she rubbed a hand down Ink’s back and asked, “Ready for the next?”

Cautiously, she called out the second pokémon. The light formed much lower and smaller than the kangaskhan and she blinked when she first saw the charmander that was, instead of the bright orange she saw in textbooks, a warm honey color.

She looked at it. The charmander blinked. When it appeared ready to do nothing, she pressed a bit closer, and closer, until eventually, she reached out and petted it.

When May reported back, she told them she had only swiped one pokéball.

...

Another reason May preferred to pickpocket rather than battle was because it was too easy for people to get hurt during battle. Of course, there were grunts who preferred to just shoot or knife their target. Sometimes they would do so, just to cover their tracks and eliminate witnesses.

Fortunately, May’s pickpocketing was never noticed by the marks until it was too late, and never made a fuss, which was something Ariana appreciated.

...

Team Rocket also spent a good deal of time intimidating people by threatening to kill them, and then just killing them. Sometimes they would have their pokémon deal the blow, and sometimes they would use a weapon.

Even though May knew that they did so, she closed her eyes the first time. After, she made herself watch. Ariana almost always commanded her houndoom to do the act. She looked—and May knew this was intended—very powerful, when she did so.

Afterwards, Ariana would rest a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with such pride. May accepted the hand and accepted the pride, and reminded herself that she must be more dangerous than Ariana. Than Team Rocket.

Ariana’s pride gave her a warm feeling, sometimes, that she desperately wanted to hold onto. The first time it happened, May broke into Ariana’s office when she wasn’t there and wiped her computer. The chaos it brought cheered May up for days afterwards.

...

She told Bill and Anthony about Team Rocket, when she handed Bill a couple of key cards and memory sticks she had swiped and told him to have fun.

That night, an entire warehouse of Team Rocket was busted, and a few weeks later, a larger operation heading towards the Lake of Rage was caught.

“Bring me anything you can,” Bill said. “Even if you don’t think it’s important. I still might be able to use it.”

 


	5. Heading for Hoenn! Hooray?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May's parents find out that she's been sneaking out, and they try to deal with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D

Ink managed to beat Blades for the first time, which was exciting for everyone, even Blades, who began to go all out. Val, who had little interest in sparring for sparring’s sake, got caught up in the excitement, and would run out into the battlefield before May ran after him to grab him out of harm’s way.

She did let Val practice on Ink and Blades, so long as they just stood there and let themselves be target practice. Val learned how to scratch with accuracy and shot out weak gushes of water, but not much else. His leers were especially weak. Honey the shiny charmander wasn’t enthused about battling, and seemed hesitant to hurt anyone. May let them start training slowly, and eased their way into battling, using inanimate targets for practice first.

Honey, as appropriate to her name, was very sweet. She enjoyed cuddling with May, Bill, Anthony, Ink, Blades, and didn’t even mind when Val crawled all over her when he was restless but trying to settle down. May adored her.

And there was the egg. May cared for her egg and tried not to die of curiosity.

She came home one day, after a training session of Anthony’s and Bill’s newly caught bugs, to her father home. It was early in the evening, so this caught her attention immediately.

“Where have you been going to at night?” her father demanded. Her mother stood nearby, passive but present. Contempt began to curl into chest.

“You actually noticed?” May spat. “That took you some time.”

Norman appeared unsettled. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve been sneaking out for over a year, and you’ve only _just_ _noticed_.” Once she started, the anger began to flow out of her, the leak in the dam becoming larger and larger. “Maybe you should have spent some more time here rather than losing at the gym?”

Her father’s and mother’s expressions. Suddenly, May didn’t feel well. She turned and ran.

...

She had to go home eventually, and returned to a household changed. Now, her parents attempted to keep her in, to set her a curfew. She snuck out, and when she returned, both of her parents were waiting up for her and kept her up for the next two hours to yell.

It was upsetting and it wasted time, but May couldn’t be contained anymore, having had freedom for too long. She persisted in breaking out through her window, and aside from physically locking down her room, her parents couldn’t stop her.

This continued for a month. She could see the stress in their faces, but she didn’t know how this could be better. May couldn’t stay in her room as they wanted and she had long past the point where she wanted to listen to what they said. Her father spent more time at home, and every time she returned home in the middle of the night, he would be awake and ready to yell at her.

Then May returned home one afternoon after some training with Bill and Anthony, and found her parents waiting for her. They looked solemn, but determined. She wondered if they were going to send her away.

Norman announced, with nothing to soften the blow, “We are moving to Hoenn.”

...

May didn’t want to go to Hoenn.

It wasn’t worth protesting to her parents, so she protested to her friends. “What even is their culture? They don’t have temples or shrines—just desert and heat! And the rest is _wet_ and hot!” May moaned. “And a goddamned volcano!”

“The volcano’s going to be pretty sweet,” Anthony commented, playing with his new yanma and shiny caterpie. Bill was grooming his abra and male nidoran—he had finally ventured off from the bug theme. Anthony had not.

“Well, yeah,” May agreed. “But the heat! And the islanders! Their cities are—I mean, Rustboro supposed to be nice, but it’s still smaller than Goldenrod. Slateport’s barely a city, it’s mostly one-story buildings, and Lilycove is all about contests! Who cares about contests?”

“People in Lilycove,” Anthony replied calmly, because he liked to be calm when she wasn’t.

“Contests are popular in Sinnoh, too,” Bill added. “Actually, I think they’re really cool. And Rustboro has the Devon Corporation. And I’ve heard a lot of people vacation there. It’s like one giant beach.”

“Let’s put a wig on you and send you off to Hoenn with my parents, then, they won’t notice,” May groaned. “But I’m not even going to one of those places, that would be bearable. I’m going to—to—some little fucking town that I can’t even remember the name of!”

“Littleroot,” Anthony provided. It was a wonder that his scyther took after his calm, rather than get spurred into a murderous rage.

“That even sounds boring.”

“I’m sure you’ll change that soon enough,” Anthony said placidly.

May made a rude hand gesture at him. Anthony maturely stuck his tongue out and Bill rolled his eyes.

...

“So, Ruby,” Anthony started. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Need me to take you to the hospital?” May mumbled from where she was lying face down on the grass.

“You’re kind of a trouble-seeking, reckless, stubborn, but lucky, moron,” Anthony persisted. May grunted. “I’d tell you to stay safe, but we both know that you wouldn’t and we’re going to worry anyway, since who knows how much trouble you could get into trapped on an island. Honestly, I feel bad for Hoenn, they are so unprepared. But anyway, I was thinking,” (May mumbled, “Get on with it,”), “of letting you borrow Blades. Since, you know, he’s well-trained, and he likes you, and you need him more than me, since knowing you, you’re going to do something like, I don’t know, piss of the League Champion there and start a war. But I’d only be letting you _borrow_ Blades—you have to keep him safe, and bring him back.”

By the time Anthony had finished rambling, May was sitting up. “Oh,” she said. “I—yes, thanks. Thank you. That would—be great. I’d feel much safer. And I’d take good care of him. He’ll be a powerhouse when I bring him back.” Not able to let an opportunity to take a dig at Anthony pass by, she added, “Since I’m much better at training then you are.”

Anthony grinned. “Yeah, right. The only reason why I’m letting you borrow Blades is so he can carry you and the rest of your team since he has my superb training to fall back on.”

May smiled, happily, and pointed out that Ink had surpassed Blades and won more often than not when they battled, which spiraled into the good-natured bickering that inevitable led to a battle to prove their training skills.

...

When it came to Team Rocket, she waited until they sent her off on a mission that took her outside of Goldenrod, and she never reported back in. They would deem her MIA, after realizing the police didn’t have her either. The other grunts would be pleased, but May was uncertain as to what Ariana’s reaction would be. Most grunts who disappeared on a mission had likely been done in by wild pokémon, which only generated scorn. Still, Ariana had seemed fond of her, and had taken her on herself.

She reminded herself what those who failed Team Rocket looked like after their punishment.

However, May didn’t trash her Team Rocket uniform. Instead, she hid in by sewing it into her backpack, under a fake bottom.

Just in case.

...

They left.

It was a long boat ride following by a long truck ride. Her mother hadn’t thought about how that there would be a _driver_ of the truck, and there was only _one_ shotgun seat. If there was one driver and one shotgun, that meant that there wasn’t room for May in the front of the truck, so she had to ride in the back with all of their boxes. With no air conditioning, so she was barely protected from the hot, humid, Hoenn air, but _was_ protected from the cool breeze that would have provided relief from said heat and humidity.

She called Honey out of her pokéball, and she was more than happy to curl up with her in the dark. Honey herself radiated heat, which didn’t help, but she was so happy with the temperature that May decided that the addition really didn’t make a difference in her own misery. There were no windows, of course, in the back of the truck, so she stroked Honey’s scales and thought of her plans.

May had no intention on staying in Littleroot. She would unpack, reassure her mother that everything was fine, and take off in the dead of night. Hopefully, the strangeness in the location and the people would help hide her on her way.

Taking out a map of Hoenn she begged off her mother, she shifted Honey in her arms until her tail was illuminating the map. Bill, when she tried to point out where she would moving to, had located Littleroot and circled it for her. And then he had circled Rustboro as well.

May bit her lip thoughtfully as she traced her ideal path with a finger. To get to Rustboro, she would have to go through Petalburg, which was a sizeable city. But with her father there, it wasn’t near sizeable enough. Norman had moved a couple of months prior to his wife and daughter, to get settled in the gym. He had promised to meet them in Littleroot when they arrived, but May wasn’t going to hold her breath.

She looked at her watch. They had about a couple hours before they would arrive. The trip had involved a long ship ride from Olivine to Slateport, and then another from Slateport to Petalburg. Travel by vehicles were never very convenient; roads were made with pokémon in mind.

Nervous, she sent out Ink, and double-checked her supplies. While her backpack was already packed with what she would need for tonight and to travel, her extra clothing and some of the larger necessities she had tucked into little side packs on a harness on Ink.

Ink yawned at her, and then went back to sleep as she poked around in every bag, and marked her mental check-list. It was still daytime, even if it was dark in the truck, and Ink was nocturnal.

The door of the truck rattled. In the light of Honey’s tail, May stared at it.

The door... which was shut, but not locked... and she had a pokémon who had telekinetic powers...

“Ink,” May blurted. “Open the truck door as quietly as you can. We’re jumping out.” She scooped Honey up, who twitched her tail away from May’s clothes.

Ink yawned at her, stood up, and May heard something on the door click. Then, it began to open. The heat burst in, but now May was focused.

“Honey, come back into your ball,” she said and Honey vanished into the red. “Ink, hold it open just a bit. We’re not going that fast, but we don’t want anything to fall out.”

The opening stopped at just a foot. May went over to peak out. The road they were on was barely above a dirt path, paved but cracked, single lane both ways. No cars in sight, and the truck moving slow.

“Do we jump out of a moving truck or wait ‘till a stop?” she asked Ink, who was by her side.

Ink braced himself down and nipped at her arm. She pulled herself up and wrapped herself around on his back.

As far as pokémon went, Ink really wasn’t large enough to ride. It could work in a pinch, and much smaller pokémon than he had been reported to carry their injured trainers to the closest towns. Clinging to Ink’s back was a definite option in case of emergencies, though being a little tall for a girl, it made for an uncomfortable position for very long.

But it was perfect for jumping off a truck.

After May had a good hold, the door opened wide enough for Ink to deftly leap off, and May heard it shut and click behind them. And the truck went on, uninterrupted, and she and Ink were left in the road.

The truck kept going.

And going... and going... and then it was so tiny in the distance.

May slipped off of Ink, who yawned again at her.

“Good job, Inky,” she said, feeling affectionate and warm and trying to pass that to him. He rubbed against her thigh, and yawned at her again, pointedly. She recalled him back into his pokéball, and called out Blades instead.

“We’re walking to... wherever we want to go,” said May, unable to repress her smile.

And they walked.

 


	6. Petalburg City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May avoids her father and makes a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy! Little longer than usual, but I wanted to get a good section in.

It was so hot. Way too hot. May hated everything.

The heat was oppressive, and the humidity made her clothes stick to her, and then moreso when she sweated. She felt gross. It was bad enough at the port or in the truck, but walking during the day with the sun beating down at her was too much. She was certain she already had a sunburn. (She forgot sunscreen. She had to forget something.)

This was worse than she had even imagined. The weather was consistent all year. It was supposed to be like this _always_.

It didn’t take long—when the sun was high and she thought she might get heatstroke, she stopped in a cool-ish spot underneath the root of a tree (their foliage was beautiful, she had to admit. Wild, alien, and completely beautiful) and took out her water and her map.

(The earth smelled different. It was brighter in color, more red. May picked up a handful and smelled it. It was sweeter than home. Smoother to the touch, too.)

May wanted to get to Rustboro as soon as possible, but it may not be possible to go there without stopping at Petalburg on the way. And if she stopped at Petalburg, it would have to be quick and discrete, since she couldn’t afford her father’s attention.

Unfortunately, her pokégear did not have a map function for Hoenn, so it was almost useless.

Almost. It still had its phone function.

She called Anthony first, but when he didn’t answer, she tried Bill, who did.

“Ruby? Shouldn’t you still be on your way to Littleroot?”

“I jumped out of the truck. Quick, get a map and help me figure out which way I need to go.”

“You _jumped_ out of the _truck_?” Bill whispered. May heard a door close—he must be at home. “Ruby, that’s dangerous!”

“Ink and I are fine. It’s hot as balls here. I’m walking with Blades now. Did you pull up a map?”

“Yeah, yeah, just one minute... okay... so anything around you? Where were you guys headed from?”

“We arrived at Route 104 at the docks and we were driving to Littleroot... we were just following that... west?”

“East,” Bill corrected. “Do you know if you passed through Oldale already?”

“I... don’t think so. We still had several hours to go on the road.”

“What time is it there?”

“It’s 2 o’clock.”

“Okay, you see the sun? Follow it and it’ll take you to Petalburg. If you follow the sun for a bit and then go slightly to the right, you’ll probably be able to find Rustboro eventually, since it’s northeast of where you are. But that might take several days to get to on foot, and there’s the Petalburg Woods in-between which most people don’t recommend going through when you’re tired.”

“So follow the sun, rest in Petalburg, and then go north, gotcha.”

“Yeah. Call again if you get lost, okay? Or if you’re in trouble. And don’t forget to wear sunscreen, it’s going to be way sunnier there than you’re used to. Also don’t forget that there’s a poisonous mushroom there that you cannot eat and looks like the ones you can, want me to text you a picture of it for reference?”

“Yes, I remember, but go ahead and send me that picture. And I’ll be fine. Say hi to Anthony for me. And thanks, Bill.”

“No problem, Ruby.”

They hung up, and May walked towards the sun, with Blades closely behind.

...

May steadfastly followed the sun, which didn’t improve her mood, or the way she smelled. Her clothes soaked through with sweat, and she patted her chest a couple of times to make sure her shirt didn’t stick to her chest and reveal her as a girl.

A few other trainers crossed paths with her, and challenged her to a battle. (There was one that took one look at Blades and run past her; she didn’t bother even to call out to them.) Their pokémon were fairly low-leveled; low-leveled enough that May felt comfortable sending out Honey or Val. Blades she let stay out with her, as protection, but didn’t make him exhaust himself battling.

“Although you could take on all of these trainers, of course,” she assured him, patting his upper-arm when she sent out Honey against what looked like a giant acorn.

The wild pokémon were not overly aggressive, though perhaps that was due to Blades’ presence. She saw plenty of zigzagoon, its evolved form linoone; wurmples and its respective evolved forms; a blue bug-type looking pokémon she didn’t recognize but that skittered away from her quickly. Looked like a bug-type. _Wonder if it’s something I could trade to Anthony as a gift?_ She rarely saw it, so she resolved to catch it if the opportunity came up for Anthony.

When she needed a break, she asked Blades to hold one of his arms in front of her face so she could use it as a mirror.

“Just gotta take care of this real quick,” she told him, pulling out of scissors from her bag. While she generally liked to keep her hair short, she had neglected it while preparing for this trip, and if she was going to pull off her role as Ruby, the _male_ rookie trainer, she needed to look the part.

When her hair was in pieces around her, she called out Ink, who was snoozing and wasn’t bothered to wake up. That was fine—she rooted through one of the bags Ink was carrying, and found new clothes and running shoes she had bought and hidden so her parents had never seen them. She emptied out the pockets of her old clothes, shoved them in a pile with her hair, and had Honey burn them.

When she was done, she checked her appearance in Blades’ arm. The end result was nothing to boast about, but she would pass more easily as a poor, rookie trainer with a shoddy on-the-road hair cut than she would with a professional haircut. It may even help sell her as a real trainer. She put on a hat to finish it off, and pull it down a little to obscure her face.

She was barely recognizable.

Perfect.

...

The sun set, and in an attempt to not lose her way, she picked a cool, secluded spot, laid down her sleeping bag, and climbed on top of it. It was too hot to need to sleep in it, and would likely always be so, but it would protect her from getting covered in dirt and mud overnight.

She left Blades out to sleep, but called out Ink. She gave him a kiss on the muzzle and said, “Keep an eye out for me.”

May was uncertain how much Ink understood verbally, and how much he just _knew_. In battles, sometimes she didn’t have to call out commands to him. When they explored, she never had to tell him anything.

 _You’re such a good boy_ , she thought, and Ink licked her hand.

Sleep didn’t come easy. It was too hot, and the unfamiliar sounds of unknown Pokémon kept her alert. She sweated too much and she could smell herself already.

May woke, when the sun was bright in her eyes, feeling unrested and irritated.

But she got up, and continued now in the opposite direction of the sun, and would until it became afternoon.

…

By nightfall, she had arrived in Petalburg. Which was good. She would have to get used to spending nights on the ground, but a reprieve early on wouldn’t hurt. And perhaps it would be easier to avoid Norman at night.

Her parents would know at this point that she had disappeared. She wasn’t quite certain what they would think. Would they correctly assume that she had jumped out of the truck? Norman might be waiting at the pokémon center for her, furious.

She loitered, for just a bit too long. Someone came running down the path and knocked her down.

“Hey, what are you doing? Don’t stand in the way!” said the boy with a weird white hat, before he continued off sprinting. May lay in the _mud_ , her clothes covered in even more filthy than they already were, too stunned and offended to speak. Blades seemed equally as stunned, but he began to growl and raise his arms in an aggressive manner.

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going?” she seethed, much too late for the boy to actually hear her.

She stomped down to the city. May couldn’t put it off forever, and she needed to fully stock up before heading out from Petalburg to Rustboro.

If Norman was outside the pokémon center, she would wait him out. Or go in with Ink, disguising her. _It’ll be fine_ , May thought.

The pokécenter was easy to find, and even easier to get a room. Norman hadn’t been outside of it, or inside of it. May had gotten a room with a Hoenn license that had her as Ruby Blacksmith and male, and registered Blades, Val, and Honey as his. As Ruby’s.

Ink might draw too much attention. She didn’t know how many people had a zorua or zoroark from Unova, after all. Also, it was good to have a backup. Everything might still blow up on her yet. One unregistered pokémon would be easier to hide, so long as she didn’t use him in official battles.

And she could register him easily once she’s gotten to Rustboro.

Registering pokémon to a trainer’s license helped track what type of pokémon a trainer had, and their badges, which doubled as a marker of the trainer’s ability to care for and train different tiers of pokémon.

A trainer’s license came in different forms—a basic one was pretty much required of all people who wanted to keep and care for a pokémon, and only consisted of caretaking and training, and also limited people to Class E or D pokémon. It covered more gentle pokémon like skittys, oddishs, or pidgeys. Ones that can be looked for and kept in a home without any fuss, and good for children. A rookie’s trainer license was more in depth, and showed approval for the trainer to own and handle Class C pokémon, like the typical starters, and pokémon of more destructive and powerful types, like vulpix or electrobuzz.

Most people got the rookie’s trainer license just to be able to have rather gentle, but still powerful, pokémon like growlithe or houndour. The exams were free, and the licenses both provided free access to the pokémon center. There were little reasons not to have a license.

Approval to own and train Class B and A pokémon (B-class pokémon were either endangered or deadly, such as kangaskhan or nidoking; A-class pokémon were semi-legendaries or legendaries like dragonite or lugia) only came with numerous gym badges.

Both of her licenses were the rookie trainer’s license, and they would each cover Blades, Val, and Honey. She wasn’t sure where Ink fell on the scale, but Professor Oak hadn’t seemed worried when she had met him.

The license of Ruby Blacksmith was just as legitimate as May Maple’s, but the legal documents that proved Ruby’s existence were all fakes that May and Bill had created and planted in government databases online.

(Between using Team Rocket’s scraps against them and creating May a nice fake ID, Bill was proving pretty handy with computers.)

Licenses got you into pokécenters for free, and trainers’ locations can be tracked for by them if a trainer went missing (which they did fairly often). She would have to use the Ruby license and identity at all pokécenters.

She had had to think long on what she would do for gym battles. Trainers had to register at Gyms, and if they won, their victory and increased status would be noted on their license online. It prevented people from just stealing the physical badges. If she used the Ruby license, it may be null and void if she was eventually caught out, but if she used the May license, she could be tracked by Norman. (Gym leaders definitely had the access to tracking trainer licenses.)

Gym battles, in a way, were one of the few ways a trainer could get legitimate prestige and credentials as a trainer. Even if competitive battling wasn’t their interest, it was still evidence that you had the character and skill to be respected. And that part… mattered quite a lot to May. Even if it would be better to avoid gyms altogether.

It had been easy to apply for a trainer’s license; it had been harder to do it twice, one for May, and one for Ruby. And very illegal.

Bill, who was more experienced with computers than she was, had told her the identity was as solid as he could make it. If she didn’t want to be found, she should use only her Ruby license. So the May license was added to the sewn-in bottom of her backpack.

All of her pokémon and badges would be added to the Ruby Blacksmith license, and for all intent and purposes, she would be Ruby Blacksmith.

...

After a shower and a nap, she logged onto the computer in her room and got onto the website, ElectroWeb. She made a profile for Ruby Blacksmith, took a quick selfie with Val on her shoulder, and sent friend requests to Bill and Anthony.

As her status, all she wrote was, _starting my pkmn journey! :)_

That done, she logged off, and had Val follow her down to the lobby. It was quite late now, but stores should still be open—she could get what she needed and leave first thing in the morning.

She was going to leave, but May glanced to the left, and saw a small, sickly looking boy with green hair quietly crying in the corner. Or it seemed like he was; he was trying to hide it. May changed directions and went over to him.

“I’m sorry,” May started. People crying in pokémon centers usually might lose a partner, or had lost a partner. “Can I get you anything?”

The boy looked up, startled, and frantically shook his head. “N—No, I’m fine. I’m okay.”

“What happened?” May asked, curious. He didn’t seem so shaken up as she would expect for someone who might be losing a pokémon...

“Oh—I just... it’s dumb, and I shouldn’t even be here. It’s not even that big a deal.”

“Dunno man, I count anything that makes me cry a big deal. So, c’mon, spill.”

The boy let out a shaky breath. “The gym leader was going to help me catch a pokémon today. I—I’m leaving tomorrow, for Verdanturf, and I’ve never been there before, and I really wanted my own pokémon before I went by myself... and he forgot. He forgot, and I spent hours waiting for him, and then I was going to ask some trainers to help me out, but I couldn’t work up the courage, and I’m leaving tomorrow and I still don’t have a pokémon—”

“Whoa, whoa, it’s okay,” May said, when it looked like he was about to start crying again. Norman forgot an appointment he had? May didn’t really know how Norman treated people he made promises to aside from her, but she had assumed he was a little more on top of anything work-related than that.

“He forgot about me. People always forget about me,” the boy said, miserable.

“Well... I’m right here. And I’m a trainer. Let’s go get you a pokémon.”

“What?” Wally said. “Really? Right now?”

“Yeah, really. Right now. Maybe we can catch you a poochyena, I’ve heard those make for really good companions.”

“Oh! Oh! Thank you!” And the boy stood up and was about to hug her, and she put up an arm.

“Ah, no hugs, I don’t like being touched, but I definitely feel the love. Also, what’s your name?”

“Oh! Sorry, I’m sorry, my name is Wally.”

“I’m Ruby. Nice to meet you. Now let’s go catch you a pokémon.”

...

They had to stop at a pokémart anyway, since neither Wally nor May had any pokéballs. After buying a few, they headed out to Route 102.

“So... any idea why the gym leader stood you up?”

“No,” Wally said, sniffing. He coughed frequently, as well as stumbled, in addition to his sniffles. He was holding May’s arm so he wouldn’t fall. May suspected him to be continuously sick, or otherwise predisposed to it. He didn’t seem that young, so it may be the reason he had asked the gym leader for assistance in catching a pokémon. But it wasn’t really her business, so she didn’t ask about that part. “He just never showed up. The receptionist didn’t know where he went. He got a phone call and ran out.”

“Ah.” They continued to walk in silence for a little, then, “Any preference of what pokémon you’re looking for? Poochyena’s probably the best you can find around here, but if you have your heart set on a wurmple or zigzagoon...”

“Anything is fine. I just want a pokémon.”

“Well, that makes it easy.”

They walked a little longer—they could hear pokémon, but not see them and Honey’s fire seemed to scare them off than attract them. May was considering recalling Honey when an odd little shape stood out to meet them.

It was very small, and had a green helmet and what looked like a white dress covering it. May hadn’t encountered anything like it when she had been walking down this route that afternoon.

“Will that do?” May asked. Wally nodded, and May placed Honey down on the ground.

“So, just hit it a couple times so I can catch it,” May instructed Honey, who ran up and smacked it with her tail. The green pokémon was growling, a little, but not even enough to phase Honey. Hitting it again seemed a little unnecessary. “Eh—hold off on that second hit, I’m going to try to catch it.”

And catch it she did. “Well, that was easy. Here you go, a freshly caught... whatever that thing is.”

May handed Wally the pokéball, and Wally’s entire face lit up. “I have a pokémon!” His entire face was soft, and he gazed at the pokéball with amazement. “I finally have a pokémon.”

May smiled too. Wally’s enthusiasm was infectious. “Let’s get it checked out and registered at the pokémon center so we can figure out what it is. Also, I’m getting hungry.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” said Wally, still smiling wide.

...

The pokémon was a ralts, a psychic/fairy type, and female. Wally and May tried to think of a name for her over food.

“I did not name my scyther ‘Blades,’” May insisted. “He’s a friend’s and I’m borrowing him and my friend who owns him gave him that name. Not me. My naming skills are way better than that.”

“’Val’ and ‘Honey’?” Wally asked, grinning.

“Val is short for Valiant, that totodile is such a brave little shit, you haven’t even seen him in action. And Honey is honey-colored, it made perfect sense. Also, when she is a giant, fire-breathing dragon who can waste destruction everywhere she goes, it will be _hilarious_.”

Wally laughed at her, so May stole his fries. “My naming skills are fantastic, you will see.”

“I think I’ll be okay,” Wally said. “I was thinking of Lucille or something.”

“That’s pretty fancy. And pretty.”

“Where are you heading, after this?” Wally asked suddenly. “Are you going to challenge the gym leader?”

“No, I’m heading off to Rustboro, and I’ll start there.”

“Why not start here?”

“I’d rather not face this gym leader right now,” May evaded.

“But why not? He’s not going to be much different than the Rustboro Gym...”

Maybe it was because it was so late, and May was tired—maybe it was because she already really liked Wally, maybe it was because Bill and Anthony were so far away. But she said, “He’s my father and he can’t know I’m here.”

Wally had a very expressive face. “Oh.” He struggled with something and then asked, “What happened?”

May liked the genuine concern she saw, which made her want to open up, just a little. “He’s—they’re controlling when they pay attention. Him and my mom. I needed to get away.”

“And you came to Petalburg?”

“There’s no where else to go! You can’t get to Mauville from Oldale without crossing a huge river!” Wally was slowly nodding. “I need someplace to go to hide for a while so I can do my own thing!”

Wally’s eyebrows furrowed and eyed May. “Doesn’t Norman have a... uh, a daughter?

“Yeah, don’t talk about that either. Just call me Ruby.”

“Right, okay. Do you need a place to stay?” At May’s look, Wally continued, with a blush on his cheeks but no stutter. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning, but my parents will give you an air mattress for the night since you helped me get a pokémon.”

That... would be a great solution to May’s issues, actually. The pokécenter provided shelter and housing, but her parents would likely check the trainers staying there soon enough. Checking out and staying at Wally’s would prevent that problem, and still let her rest and restock.

Wally came with her to grab her stuff from the pokémon center, and they went over to his house.

 


	7. Your Daughter is Not Upstairs, That's for Sure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May and Wally part ways.

“Ruby. Ruby!” Wally whispered. “Wake up!”

“Hm?”

“You don’t have to get up yet, but don’t come downstairs. Norman’s here.”

That woke May up.

“What? _Why?_ ”

“He came to apologize to me for yesterday! Then he started talking about why he didn’t show so my mom brought him in for coffee!”

“Shit, shit, _shit_!”

“No, really, stay here!” Wally said, trying to push May back down and failing. May didn’t consider herself very strong, but it was more than enough against Wally. “Seriously, don’t go downstairs! He doesn’t know you’re here and he’s not going to know if you don’t go down. Just stay here, shower, pack, but stay here!”

May let out a deep, shuddering breath. “You’re sure he doesn’t know I’m here?”

“Really sure. My parents didn’t get a good look at you, and they think he spent all day looking for his _daughter_ and they think you’re a guy—”

What? “He spent all day looking for me?”

“Yeah,” Wally said and hesitated. “It’s all over the news, to keep an eye out for you. It’s, uh, a good thing you didn’t stay at the pokémon center.”

“Oh no,” May said, dismayed. “I don’t want to be found, Wally. Don’t tell him I’m here.”

“I’m not going to tell.”

“Seriously though,” May said. “He’s been ignoring me all my life, and when he doesn’t ignore me, he and my mom try to desperately control me. They don’t know I have the pokémon that I have.” Distantly, May realized that something was wrong with her. She felt like she couldn’t breathe and she thought she would fall over. “They don’t know really anything about me, and I like it that way. I like my freedom. I _love_ my freedom. I have to get out of here.”

“Ruby, slow down! Just—here, sit down—” Wally guided her to the bed and told her. “Just concentrate on breathing, you’re having a panic attack. Just come on with me—breathe in... and out... in... and out...”

She still felt like something was wrong with her lungs, but it was slowly getting better. Wally’s hands were cold on her shoulders, but he looked so calm and certain. It helped.

“Okay, I’m okay. What was that?”

“A panic attack. You’ve never had one before?”

“No,” May said. Not when she was a Team Rocket grunt, not when she was stealing from Team Rocket themselves, not when she saw people murdered.

“Okay, well, just try to avoid what triggers it for you, so... yeah, don’t go downstairs, definitely. If you are triggered, take deep breaths just like we did. And, uh,” Wally didn’t make eye contact, “you can call me. You know, if you’re on the road and you need someone to talk you through it.”

May gave him a shaky smile. “Thanks.” She could hear some voices downstairs. “I think I’ll take that shower.”

“Yeah, go ahead! I’ll go downstairs and try to get Norman to leave. I’ll come up when it’s safe.”

“Thanks, Wally.”

...

The shower helped the shaking, and after some consideration, May let Val out to play in the water while she washed. His joy in the spray of the water was soothing, though she had to be careful not to step on him or get soap on him.

While was in his room packing for his trip when she stepped out, dressed in fresh clothing with Val in her arms.

“Is he gone?”

“He’s gone to Route 102, so you should be able to get out by Route 104 without any problems. That’s the way you’re going right?”

“That’s the plan.”

“I’m about to leave for the docks on Route 104, so we could walk a bit of the way together, if you want?”

After she agreed, she and Wally grabbed their bags and made their way downstairs, where they were accosted by Wally’s father who insisted that May take something with her to eat at the very least. May hadn’t even realized how hungry she was, so she took the food gratefully, as well as some non-perishable food that were offered for her trip.

“Let me stop at the pokémart real quick so get some road medicine.” She should have enough, with the battles she won earlier and the money she saved on food thanks to Wally’s parents providing it for her. “When does your boat leave?”

“Not for a couple more hours. We can stop.”

Petalburg was a decently sized city, if spread out, and the pokémart was well-stocked. Most of it was out of the price range that May could afford, but a few potions and pokéballs were all that were absolutely necessary. _Although an antidote would be nice_ , she thought, eying said item. It wasn’t too expensive... and it could mean the difference between life and death for a pokémon. And her.

She bought one, in addition to the couple of potions and pokéballs, and hurried back to Wally.

“So where did you say you were going?” May asked.

“Verdanturf,” Wally said. “I get asthmatic attacks a lot, and the air’s a lot better there, so my parents thought it would help me.”

“Where is that?”

“Over the mountains,” Wally said, pointing behind them. “But the road through the mountains is closed due to a cave-in, and I don’t have a pokémon to take me over the river, and I’d have to cross over the mountains to do that anyway.”

“Ah, shit, so you have to go all the way around?”

Wally sighed, which turned into a cough. “Yeah.”

“Well,” May said. The docks were already in sight. “Let me give you my phone number and you can call me when you get there.”

“I’ll do that,” Wally said, and May pulled out her pokégear. She had thirty missed calls on her phone, all from her father and a second number that was likely her mother. “What’s that?”

“My pokégear. It’s from Johto. I’ll probably need to get a pokénav or whatever you have here in Hoenn.”

“Pokénav,” Wally confirmed. “Devon Corp. makes them. It’s in Rustboro, so that’d be a good place to get one.”

“If I can afford it, which I can’t,” May added.

Wally shrugged. “Then your pokégear will be fine for a while.”

They were nearly at the docks. The air was unpleasant, this close to working engines. Wally began to cough again. “You know where to go?”

“Yeah, it’s on—it’s on my ticket,” which he pulled out and May walked him to the boat itself, and helped him get his bags on deck.

“Well,” May said, as she wiped away some sweat from her face. “I guess I should go. Got a long way to Rustboro.”

Wally gave her a huge smile, and asked for permission to hug her. She allowed it. He promised, “I’ll give you a call when I get to Verdanturf.”

May didn’t like goodbyes, so she didn’t let herself linger. She left the docks and started north, to Petalburg Woods.

 


	8. Survival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pokémon journey is a dangerous endeavor, after all.

The woods were… not dark, not really. The foliage was thick, and blocked daylight from entering which was a relief, but the color of it all was so bright. Bright greens, bright reds, and oranges, and pinks, and purples, and blues, and white. It was so tropical, like the post cards she had seen in the pokémart. The air was so sweet from the flowers, the dirt was moist and reddish, and squished with her every step.

(And yes, it was still hot. And humid. The shade was nice at least.)

Perhaps this was why Hoenn was increasingly becoming a vacation spot.

Petalburg Woods itself was enormous. The trees were large and old, and though widely spaced, smaller trees, ferns, and many other plants filled in all of the space. The path she was on was small and faded, not well travelled at all. _Not like in Johto_ , she thought, with a pang of homesickness, thinking of its wide and clear routes.

May saw many pokémon too, and called Blades out to protect her. He enjoyed the fresh air and the environment very much, and his presence kept away the wild pokémon. There were slakoths, and its evolved forms, including vigoroths that charged her and had to be subdued by Blades. They were more vicious and larger than slakoth, but not so large as a slaking that she saw that was at least five times her size, but sleeping at the base of a tree. She and Blades tip-toed around it and happily left it undisturbed.

There were some odd, squat, green pokémon that emitted spores when she saw them, and others that did the same but appeared to be its evolved form that could also throw a punch, and while she tried to avoid them, she had to call out Honey to subdue a few with fire. (Blades could have handled it, but she wanted Honey and Val to improve and to hopefully evolve soon. They were both much bigger than when she got them, and May had hopes.)

There were several creeks in the woods, and she took a break to refill her water canisters and let all of her pokémon out. Val enjoyed a swim, Blades and Ink a long drink and bath, and Honey just a drink.

May decided that she also ought to rinse her face at least. She was covered in sweat, again, but she had washed at Wally’s just that morning.

She thought about continuing, but her pokégear told her that she had been walking for most of the afternoon—it would be dark soon, and might be impossible to navigate the forest then.

_Well_ , May thought, eyeing Ink, who was playing with Blades, _I have a pokémon quite adept to navigating in the dark_. That was a tempting idea, actually. While it would be tiring, she would make fantastic time. And she could go a few hours after dark at least.

However, it would be difficult to tell if she was headed in the right direction. She had her map, but had no detail in regards to Petalburg Woods, which was wild and easy to get lost in. Her pokégear had little phone reception here—she really needed to invest in a pokénav—maybe she could find an old version for sale, or a used one?

Petalburg Woods could take several days to traverse if you got lost, but only a couple if you headed straight and kept forward, and unless she got turned around entirely, she would encounter mountains, the sea, or Rustboro. If she encountered either one of the first two, she would know which way to go next.

She continued forward a little and came upon another creek by the time the sun set. It became clear how much sun really did pass through the canopy during the day. May could no longer see her own hands in front of her.

If something happened, she ought to be well rested for it. Decided, she let out Ink and Val for the night. Ink to keep watch, and Val to rest in the water. May settled down on her sleeping bag. It was too hot to lie in it again.

The woods were dark and calming, and in the woods, it was cooler than her first night in Hoenn. May fell asleep easily.

…

May woke up to a snarl and terror gripping her throat.

She stood up before she understood what was happening. Ink was a few feet ahead of her, battle ready on his hind legs, snarling into the dark. Snarling into… Snarling into…

She saw the eyes.

Eyes, surrounding them. What can they be? They weren’t tall enough for slaking, and too quiet. But they were too tall for poochyena.

_Doesn't poochyena have an evolved form? Almost like a houndoom._ Chills ran down May’s spine. Ink wouldn’t be enough to handle all of them. Without looking behind her, she could already count four. How many was there to a pack?

_Ho-Oh, help me._ She reached inside her jacket to pull out Blades. Her hand was shaking, or a muscle spasmed, she didn't know — either way, she dropped his pokéball. Without thinking, she reached down to pick it up.

They chose that moment to attack.

The four in front rushed Ink and — a kangaskhan. Not real, an illusion, but a shiny like the collector who had had Honey. No, the four in front attacked only Ink, but there were another four attacking the illusion. And by the time she stood up, Blades’ pokéball in hand, one mightyena was leaping for her, all gleaming teeth.

A stream of water knocked it back. Val rushed forward, glowing white and bigger, until he was nearly five feet long, had even more teeth than before, and was a proper croconaw. With those massive jaws, Val bit the mightyena and threw it to the side, where it whimpered and ran back into the dark.

The kangaskhan was already gone. Ink was using extrasensory to keep the mightyena at bay with tree branches physically and also flashing lights at them, but was tiring already. Val shot one with a water gun, and ran forward to help Ink. Still shaking, May released Blades.

He materialized by her side, startled, and looked to her for command. May waved towards Ink and Val, who were still vastly outnumbered. With a cry, Blades flew up and landed hard on one of their attackers. With a slice, he dropped another one. A bunch of branches knocked a third unconscious and a fourth went flying into the water with little red teeth marks on its side. Halfway through. No longer shaking, but still afraid, May called out Honey.

Honey, she kept by her side for protection, now that her pokémon were no longer likely to die in this assault. But to assist, she had her charmander breathe embers towards the remaining attackers. Despite losing, the mightyena didn't give up. May’s pokémon had to make them faint to end the assault. When it was quiet and her pokémon looked back towards her, Ink and Val rubbing against her reassuringly, she dropped to her knees and hugged them both.

This… This was the danger of a pokémon journey. Most pokémon were predators, and if hers hadn’t been strong enough to protect her… That would've been the end of it. Her parents likely never would've found her body. Most people don't. Too scared to sleep, she called back all but Ink and Honey — Ink to guide them, and Honey to light their way.

She wanted out of this forest tomorrow.

…

When it was morning, and the birds just started their songs, May stopped to rest. She didn't want to sleep, but she was exhausted. She switched her pokémon out to Val and Blades, and closed her eyes for a minute. It was brighter when she woke up, Blades sitting next to her, and Val’s large head resting on her lap.

A little refreshed, May considered her newly evolved pokémon. Val was now a force to be reckoned with, a solid attacker she could rely on, much like Blades and Ink. He was even big enough that she could cross bodies of water with him.

Surfing over water was not really a matter of strength, but rather the size of the pokémon. It was actually rather similar to what just happened to her with the mightyena — while she could have been pulled along in water by a totodile, given even the weakest pokémon’s strength, she would be easy prey for whatever was in the water, and a totodile would not be able to protect her and keep her afloat at the same time. Val was now five feet long when on all fours, and intimidating besides. She survived the mightyena because she had several pokémon powerful on land with her. In water, she only had Val. As a totodile, that would never be enough. But as a croconaw, so long as they avoided the wide open ocean, they should be fine.

“Good boy," she said, pulling a treat out of her bag and feeding it to Val, and also to Blades. “You, too." She leaned her head back against the tree bark, gazing upwards absentmindedly. She could see nothing but leaves. May was at the point that she would climb the trees if only to see where she was going.

Then she remembered that Blades could fly.

“Blades,” she started suddenly. His head cocked towards her. “Fly above the trees and see which direction is the large city.” And Blades did. While they waited, May pet Val’s snout and he closed his eyes. Absentmindedly, she picked a little bit at his exposed teeth, and thought, _I need to brush his teeth again soon._

Blades flew back down, and pointed. It was mostly the direction they’d been going. May breathed a sigh of relief. "Onwards,” she sighed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Heroes of Hoenn by xXsapphireheartXx on ff.net.


End file.
